Collaborative Authoring, Use and Reuse of Learning Material in a Computer-integrated Classroom

Abstract

Reuse of computer based learning material is a key requirement for any practical approach to support adaptive and dynamic teaching/learning inside and outside the classroom. Unlike hardware technology innovations, the software support for reuse inside the classroom is still not satisfactory. We present an approach to reuse material based in the Computer-integrated Classroom (CiC) environment and a special type of active documents used for containing learning material defined by the user to fit the particular needs of a lecture. This approach allows collaboration at two levels. The first one involves learning unit authors, who can jointly develop a course and teach it independently. The second level of collaboration refers to teacher and students exchanging and sharing documents. This framework does not impose a certain teaching/learning style. It rather supports the seamless transition from one teaching/learning mode to another one, using the same material.